Mapania palustris (PROSEA)

Plant Resources of South-East Asia Introduction

List of species

Mapania palustris (Hassk. ex Steud.) F.Vill.

Family: Cyperaceae

Synonyms

Mapania andamanica C.B. Clarke, M. javana Uittien, Pandanophyllum palustre Hassk. ex Steud.

Vernacular names

• Indonesia: harashas, bangkonoh (Sundanese), assingsing (eastern and central Sumatra)
• Malaysia: menkuang tedong, menkuang lobo (from its resemblance to Pandanus )
• Philippines: kulibang, blas (Subanon).

Distribution

From the Andaman Islands, peninsular Thailand, Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore through Sumatra, Java, Borneo, the Philippines and the Moluccas to New Guinea, the Solomon Islands and the New Hebrides.

Uses

The leaves are made into mats and baskets in Peninsular Malaysia and Brunei. M. palustris is also grown as an ornamental.

Observations

A perennial, robust to very robust, rhizomatous herb, up to 2.5 m tall. Stems erect, 2-4 per plant, lateral, terete to trigonous, 7-37 cm × 1.5-5.5 mm, glabrous to densely hispid, greenish to red-brown. Leaves longer than the stems, basal, coriaceous; blade linear, 70-200 cm × 1.5-5 cm, base gradually narrowed into sheath, margins entire to serrulate, apex acuminate, 3-veined, flat to inverse W-shaped in cross-section, septate-nodulose when dry. Involucral bracts several, about 3 cm long; inflorescence capitate, subglobose, terminal, 1-8 cm in diameter, composed of 3-100, often densely packed spikelets; spikelets ellipsoidal, 1-3 cm long; flowers bisexual, stamens 3, stigmas 3. Fruit a nut, ellipsoid to obovoid, 3.5-5 mm × 2.5-3.5 mm, apex with small recurved beak, exocarp succulent, thin, brown. M. palustris is a very variable species and the extremes have often been treated as separate species. At present 2 varieties have been distinguished, mainly based on the inflorescence:

• var. andamanica (C.B. Clarke) D.A. Simpson (synonym: Mapania andamanica ): spikelets up to 6 per inflorescence, forming an open head, each spikelet subtended by a prominent involucral bract; distributed in the Andaman Islands, peninsular Thailand and northern Peninsular Malaysia;

• var. palustris (synonyms: Mapania javana , Pandanophyllum palustre ): spikelets usually more than 6 per inflorescence, forming a dense head, the head (not the individual spikelets) subtended by prominent involucral bracts; distribution as the species but not in Andaman Islands.

M. palustris is a very common and widespread species, found in wet or muddy locations in damp primary forest, along streams and on wet rocks, at altitudes up to 1500 m. In Java it flowers from June to December.

Selected sources

6, 20, 47, 156, 158.

Authors

M. Brink, P.C.M. Jansen & C.H. Bosch